What once was a privilege is now a standard and what once was a class taught to our youth is now been replaced with empty garages.
It wasn’t that long ago that owning a vehicle was a privilege, especially for the lower and middle classes of society. We, at Advanced Auto Care, wanted to give you the top 10 tips on how to take care of your car to help keep it out of the shop.
1) Buy a tire pressure gauge – this is a simple one. If your car is not equipped with a digital monitor to manage your tire pressure it is good to do things old fashion and pick up an air pressure gage to track your pressure in your tires. This will help lower the risk of getting a flat tire and help you get more MPG out of your tank.
2) Don’t run out of gas! – This is the simplest car care tip we can give. Whether you grew up in a garage or barely know how to open your gas tank cap – everyone knows that you can’t run low on fuel.
3) Change your oil regularly – if you take your car into a shop to get the oil changed or you do it yourself, most companies recommend that you change your oil every 7,500 miles or every six months. If you take your car to a shop, they give you a great little reminder sticker on your windshield so if you are like most of us and forget – it is there to remind you!
4) Wash the underside of your car – if this strikes you as odd, you aren’t the first. Many people don’t understand why it is important to run your car through a car wash that has jets to wash under your car or to do it yourself. It is because when you are driving around your car picks up all kinds of random pieces of debris and other amounts of junk build up under there. You don’t want that getting lodged in your belts or anything else that moves in your engine. We recommend every few months, depending on road conditions. If there is salt on the road, you should wash your car more frequently, this is so that the salt doesn’t erode your undercarriage.
5) Check your brakes! – There are numerous accidents that are attributed to bad brakes. Many drivers don’t check their brakes regularly and they often only are checked if they are squealing or shaking the car when you apply pressure to the brake pedal.
6) Lights – Not only will this get you pulled over, but it is also a major cause of accidents. Lights are used both to drive in the dark and to alert other motorists to your intentions in traffic. To test your lights, have a friend stand outside your car while you turn each light on and off, if any light does not light up, take it in to have the problem fixed as soon as you can.
7) Dash Warnings – Your dashboard in your car is erupted with all kinds of lights attached to sensors. These sensors tell your car that something is amuck and needs to be fixed or have attention brought too it. Pay attention to them – they were built in for a reason.
8) Check your radiator – The radiator system keeps your car from getting too hot or too cold. Over time the fluid that runs through the radiator and the engine becomes less effective at its job and this can eventually lead to either an engine overheating or an engine freezing and cracking. For this reason, you should remember to have your radiator serviced.
9) Have a mechanic check your car once a year – This one is self-explanatory. Some states require this test once a year, but it is good to have it done even if your state doesn’t require it.
10) Turn off the radio – If you listen to your vehicle, sometimes you can hear an issue before it becomes serious. Therefore it is good to just turn off the radio and listen to your engine run to see if you can hear any issues.